Leslie Nielsen, Andy Griffith
Title notwithstanding, Die Hard and its sequels seem like the only modern films to escape the satiric slings of this haphazardly executed send-up. Among the movies that are the butt of its jokes, the in-
spiration for parody or the subjects of transient allusion are Speed, Home Alone, Pulp Fiction, Jurassic Park and Sister Act, as well as the less predictable Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Nielsen plays a kind of aging James Bond combating evil mastermind Griffith. (There are also some inspired cameos by Ray Charles, as a bus driver, and Dr. Joyce Brothers, as a commando who criticizes bad guys' lack of self-esteem.) Director Rick Friedberg is a crony of Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers; anyone seeking a consistently funny spy sendup would be better off with the latter trio's 1984 spoof Top Secret! (PG-13)
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